Labor braces for Latham broadside

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Labor insiders are bracing themselves for a savage attack on Kim
Beazley and the party tomorrow when Mark Latham's first public
comments since quitting politics are published.

The man who last October led Labor to one of its worst defeats
has come out swinging in a new political history, arguing the party
is a spent force and Mr Beazley is unworthy to lead it.

Loner: Inside a Labor tragedy by journalist Bernard
Lagan, to be launched by former Labor Senate leader John Faulkner,
is also believed to contain a swipe at the party's election
campaign.

The broadside comes as federal Labor struggles to regain
momentum and morale after a bruising seven weeks since the federal
budget.

Mr Beazley and his close allies, frontbenchers Wayne Swan and
Stephen Smith, have come under fire over Labor's tax cuts strategy
and last week's frontbench reshuffle.

The criticism also distracts from Labor's campaign this week
against the Government's comprehensive rewrite of industrial
relations laws.

Mr Beazley rejected Mr Latham's criticisms yesterday, insisting
he had "nothing at all" to say about them and he would be far too
busy to read the book himself.

"Who cares?" he said to the prospect of a stinging attack.

He also cited Labor's clean sweep of state and territory
elections to answer the former leader's claim that the party had
run out of puff.

"Over the weekend we take 19 of the 25 seats of what used to be
a Liberal jewel, the Northern Territory," Mr Beazley said. "Really,
that's not a spent force."

But Labor spin doctor Bruce Hawker conceded the book would be
more bad news for Labor. "Obviously this is going to be the unhappy
story and we're just going to have to ride it out," he told Sky
News.

Further explosive revelations are expected from Mr Latham later
this year when he publishes the political diaries he kept during
his years as a federal MP

While critics have wondered at Senator Faulkner's decision to
launch the book, The Age believes the political veteran
cleared his intentions with Mr Beazley first.

Senator Faulkner was a key figure in Mr Latham's travelling
party during the election campaign, as was Mr Smith.

Mr Smith said the Latham era was now consigned to history.

"The Latham experiment was a sad personal experience for Mark -
ending as it did with him retiring from public life as a result of
ill-health - and a sorry political circumstance for us because we
lost the last election as a consequence," he said.